Canon EOS 70D announced

[classiccameras]

Cnet US have just released their reviews of the new Pentax K50 and K500,

Oh dear Oh dear, it looks like Pentax have taken a step backwards in several areas most importantly, Image quality.
These two new cameras are apparently worse than the models they replaced and I'm wondering just how much of this is down to Ricoh.
Although Pentax had their faults, under Hoya they seemed to be making some positive progress in the right direction.

It remains to be seen what results other review sites come up with.
Pete

[Greg Beetham]

It would be great if Pentax could lift their game a tad so they could be a convincing alternative, it’s a bit disappointing to see them doing an ordinary job of it after such a great heritage in camera making.
Some good things mixed with some not so good, is that going to be good enough in this day and age? (cheap price though)
http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-cameras ... 160-2.html
Greg

[classiccameras]

With the introduction of the KR, then K5 plus the later K30, we thought Pentax were finally on the right path, but then go and spoil every thing with the K50/500.
Although apparently, the K511 and 11S are a slight improvement on the old K5.
As you say, they need to lift their game considerably before they can become a viable alternative.

[classiccameras]

Well well, it had to happen, EphotoZine have just reviewed the Pentax K-50 and K-500 and have given them both glowing reports which is at odds with some other reviews I have read.
It remains to be seen what the general concensus ends up at.

[David Kilpatrick]

ePhotozine owns Pentax User (the former magazine) and the Pentax Club

David

[bfitzgerald]

One wonders if these cameras deliver in the hand and put those AF demons of the past to rest.
As for EPZ, it's rare for a critical review so take the rave reviews with a pinch of salt..also they have obvious de-centering on one kit lens sample (but failed to spot it) The Pentax kit is quite weak overall and badly needs an update.

Onto the concept, well they are on the right path and put Canikon to shame with much nicer penta prism VF's v the tiny tunnel entry models, dual dials they should fly off the shelves. But with Ricoh's monster USA lens price increases I think Pentax will slide even more. It should be a working man's DSLR range, that is where Pentax could do really well, but it's all lost in translations sadly as folks will ignore these even if they are decent enough.

That lithium battery if it's anything like the K-r performance wise is pointless I got under 300 shots out of it (these might be a bit better) They should have just gone with the 4x AA batteries and not bothered with the lithium cell. All that to one side decent enough on paper, buffer a bit small though but acceptable for the price, can't really see the point of 2 models one sealed one not...kinda of a K-x Part II, problem is the market has moved on and marketing talks.

Why buy a 16mp DSLR when you can buy a budget Nikon 24mp one? Shame really..the entry Nikon's are not great handling wise and have weak viewfinders, but that's marketing for you

[classiccameras]

I never knew that about Ephotozine and Pentax,
Lori Grunin at Cnet US, is apparently well known for her bias towards Canikon and any thing else are also rans, although strangly enough and out of character she praised K01 for superb image quality, Hmm.
One fairly valid critisism on the Pentax forum is she only tested the camera at default settings and never bothered to check and adjust any of the parameters.

More interestingly is how Amateur Photographer have rated Pentax over recent years, they loved the KR and gave it high marks and rated it as an enthusiasts camera, yet the they gave the K5 one less mark than the KR and classed it as a mid range enthusiasts camera. The K30 got lower marks than both the others. It will be very interesting to see where these two new Pentaxes sit with AP.
I agree about the batteries and being able to use AA cells is a definite bonus.
Having no articulated LCD even on the top models is a bad selling point and they should have rectified that with the K50/500.
I would like to see reviews where the reviewer attempts to get the best from the camera rather than just accepting its default performance. Lets face it, the default performance of most cameras in Jpeg which most reviewers seem to use for testing leaves much room for improvement.

[bfitzgerald]

A lot of sites rated the K-r highly. It improved on the K-x in a number of ways bigger buffer, more comfy due to slightly bigger body what's not to like? Ok 12mp CMOS was getting on a bit but still capable enough.

But every single review site missed the front focus problem, not a single mention from any of them.
After I got a confirmation of the problem from Pentax I got my refund from the retailer, but lesson was learnt..I've no real confidence in reviews from the big sites/magazines. Same for the D7000 none mentioned the AF issues with that model. Only IR spotted the K-x mirror slap issue.

Of course I spotted the problems fairly quickly, which leads me to conclude that most camera reviews (on-line or magazine) don't have enough field testing (ie actually using them for normal shooting) I pay a lot more attention to forum posts now, and Amazon user reviews. I really went to town on the K-r posting ebay reviews, and one on DPR too. I should actually work as a QC assassin and set up my own site for that

[classiccameras]

Was this rectified with the k30 and how much was the kit lens to blame.

[bakubo]

I got an email from Berger Bros. that had the Canon 70D body for $1199. About what I expected.

[bfitzgerald]

Do you have any Canon stuff left? Wondered if you'd give it a try at some point.

Not used any of the new Pentax models, one would hope they have sorted the issues out, I did run across this thread from a previously sponsored Pentax shooter.
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3522589

He apparently wasn't so happy with the AF performance. I never really had many problems on the K-x (AF points are too big that can lead to issues)

[bakubo]

Do you have any Canon stuff left? Wondered if you'd give it a try at some point.

No, I don't have any Canon gear anymore, but if I was to get an APS-C DSLR it would be a 60D or maybe this 70D if it seems good after people have had a chance to use it. If FF then I would get a 6D.

[classiccameras]

DPReview. liked the Kx and the Kr but had reservations on some aspects of their performance.
Some of the best pics I ever took was with my Kr and a Sigma 17-70.
I looked through a K5 11 view finder at my local dealer on Saturday. Wow, you don't know what you are missing and eat your hearts out APS-C Canikon.
The 2 new models are as good.
Peter

[bfitzgerald]

K-x only real downside was the no AF points in the VF, not a deal breaker but it meant you were quite unlikely to use anything other than the central AF point for obvious reasons! Strange move at the time but I managed to work ok with the central point. The buffer wasn't that big either bit small (for raw anyway)

I think the appeal at the time was bang per buck you got quite a well featured camera overall, decent sensor, video wasn't bad, price was good too. Which is why I tried one, unlike other makers the K-x wasn't crippled badly (bar the VF AF thing) it actually had excellent customisation, very well featured in most ways, easy to use, fairly compact it was probably the strongest Pentax offering at that time, and they're unlikely to match that again. It just got people's attention, K-r was a more modest revision.

I do admire Pentax for making models with bigger better pentaprism VF's I think it's a real shame others ignore this at the lower end. The viewfinders on the entry Canikons are not great (actually still a bit worse than the Km5d) and that's a 2005 model so we've made no real progress here which is a real shame.

Have to point out though as nice as those models were, I made the mistake of looking at the spec sheet v what happens in the real world. You just can't get a really good idea with that. For example the 16 segment metering on the older Pentax models isn't that good really, def not a patch on the Km5d's metering, ditto D7000 awful metering despite an impressive sounding number of zones. Spec sheets only tell you so much..

[bakubo]

Have to point out though as nice as those models were, I made the mistake of looking at the spec sheet v what happens in the real world. You just can't get a really good idea with that. For example the 16 segment metering on the older Pentax models isn't that good really, def not a patch on the Km5d's metering, ditto D7000 awful metering despite an impressive sounding number of zones. Spec sheets only tell you so much..

I see people on forums all the time making the same mistake. All the crazy specmanship with no consideration of how well the darn thing actually works.